Polish your dancin' shoes because your feets will be busy tonight. / Photo by Tom Andrews via LAist's flickr pool. PROM NIGHT*: The Zero One Gallery hosts “Prom Night 1980” tonight from 8 pm-midnight. This is the first in a series of monthly events where DJ David Daskal spins “records” from a given year. Tonight—you guessed it—is 1980: Blondie, Devo and Christopher Cross (“…when you get caught between the moon and New York City….”).......

It's summer in Los Angeles: The Bowl's open and Suen Kuti debuts at the Music Center. Life is good. / Photo by mike_s_etc via LAist's flickr pool. FILM It’s a Savage Steve Holland double feature at the Aero Theatre tonight. Who’s Steve Holland? Well, he’s the guy who directed two of John Cusack’s good early films. In 1985’s Better Off Dead, Cusack plays a guy dumped by his girlfriend for a jock and wants......

A few months ago I noticed a nekkid lady’s torso perched on a plinth in the middle of the Windward Traffic Circle in Venice. Considering the calle vida thereabouts, this shouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. Yet, the utter incongruousness of a slick, black, metal, larger-than-life sculpture in the midst of "don’t harsh my mellow" Bohemia, made me stop and gawk. Regardless of yellow caution tape, I sprinted across to the island, which is roomy enough......

Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting of the third and newest downtown Famima!! at the California Plaza on Grand Avenue near MOCA. It's about time this part of downtown receive some new food options, even if this is quasi Japanese 7-11 style. However, a made-to-order sushi bar will be the centerpiece of this location. In addition to the few food options at the California Plaza, Performance Row (as we once dubbed it) has a Koo Koo......

You can't escape the holidays this weekend. No matter how hard you try. So wanna play? Go with the flow? Check these events out: SING-ALONG: The Music Center’s annual Holiday Sing-Along happens tonight. Don't know the words? Songsheets will be provided. The singing takes place outside, so bundle up – or spike your personal egg nog stash. 6:30 pm // Music Center Plaza // 135 N. Grand Ave. // Free. FILM: To get Westsiders......

FASHION: Inside Project Runway hits Beverly Hills tonight. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the production, the catfights and, oh yeah, the fashion. Heidi Klum will be there, and organizers promise a few surprise guests. (The main auditorium is sold out, but a few tickets remain for the overflow theatre.) 7 pm // The Paley Center for Media // 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills // $7 for closed-circuit viewing room. OPERA:The LA Opera brings......

There was an article in the LA Times some time ago about the Downtown arts and culture scene suffering Westside patronage due to rush hour traffic. Unless residents we're already Downtown, buying a ticket to a play, symphony concert or opera was not worth the frustration stuck in traffic. On Wednesday, the LA Opera announced their new weekday service to take ticket holders on a luxury motor coach from the Federal Building in Westwood to......

The best of LA’s theatre scene is celebrated with the 2007 LA Stage Alliance’s Ovation Awards on Monday night at the Orpheum Theater downtown. The ceremony honor Annette Bening and will be hosted by Neil—wait for it—Patrick Harris (fans of How I Met Your Mother might appreciate that one). Tickets ($40, $80 and $150) to the show are available to the general public. If those ticket prices are too steep, then check out our......

Come out to the L.A. Music Center Plaza Wednesday night and see beauty under the stars! It’s a school night? You have to work early the next day? Phooey! TRUST ME ON THIS…you’ll want to make an exception for this special evening. David Michalek’s Slow Dancing is an outdoor exhibit of video portraits featuring the worlds leading dancers. Slowed down in “hyper slow motion”, the films projected on large 16-foot screens celebrate the grace......

Jason Bentley spends four nights a week in the basement studios of KCRW at Santa Monica College. 20 years ago that was virtually the job description of a DJ, but Jason's one of those DJ that didn't exist 20 years ago. He's as likely to be found talking music on the radio as he is to be spinning to four city block's worth of dancing revelers in downtown Los Angeles. If you've enjoyed "Metropolis"......

Always a voyeur but never a buyer? Maybe Art for Autism this weekend will change your mind. The Santa Monica Music Center this weekend is featuring art from 3 artists with 25% of all proceeds going to the Cure Autism Now Foundation. Where - “The Upstairs Gallery” 1901 Santa Monica Blvd. (upstairs off 19th street), Santa Monica, CA 90401 When - Sunday, July 29, 2007 from 1-6 PM Who - Raymond Fernandez: Working in......

Monday Chuck Palahniuk presents Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey 6:30pm @ Vroman's Tony Cohan signs Mexican Days 7pm @ Dutton's Donna Hogan (Anna Nicole's Sister) presents The Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith 7pm @ Book Soup Rick Riordan signs The Titan's Curse 7pm @ Borders, Torrance Joan Didion discusses The Year of Magical Thinking 8pm @ Music Center Tuesday Tish Cohen & Rex Pickett present Town House 7pm @ Book......

Hope for DVDs in your stockings and lots of trips to your cinema center - this weekend and next week will be reruns of just about everything including late night programming. I guess the idea is that you're supposed to be spending time with people you love or like or something. Today - Saturday College Basketball is scattered all over the tube from morning 'til night. "A Christmas Carol" (TCM, 11:00 a.m.) This is......

I call it Performance Row. That stretch downtown along Grand Avenue between Temple St. and the California Plaza. You can easily walk between 9 performance spaces in 5 minutes. Starting at the Music Center Plaza at Temple and heading South, you first are at the Ahmanson, Center Theatre Group's (CTG) proscenium stage that is used for dance, musicals and other traditional performances. Next is the Mark Taper Forum, a theatre used for newer theatrical......

In our continuing yearlong coverage of 365 Days/365 Plays, we present you with weeks two through four: Week 2: The Open Fist Theatre Company Tuesday, November 21 at 7:45 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Friday, November 24 at 10:45 p.m. Saturday, November 25 at 6:45 p.m. Week 3: Playwrights’ Arena Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 8 p.m. Lutheran Church of the Master, 10931 Santa Monica, Los Angeles Week 4: The Elephant Asylum Theatre December 5 -......

Excerpt from Day 2 (Nov. 16): Father Comes Home From The Wars (Part 1) Father: Hi honey, Im home. Mother: Yr home. Father: Yes. Mother: I wasnt expecting you. Ever. Father: Should I go back out and come back in again? Mother: Please. We're going to say this right now and get it over with: get off your arses and participate in this yearlong national theatre festival. which is being held simultaneously around the......

On 13 November, 2002, I had this silly idea that I would write a play every day for a year. It would be about being present and being committed to the artistic process every single day, regardless of the ‘weather.’ It became a daily meditation, a daily prayer celebrating the rich and strange process of a writing life ~ Suzan-Lori Parks Hey, LAist writes everyday too. How strange that we share this habit with......

Don't have the extra $75 for Giant Village this Saturday? Maybe you're concerned over the possibility of a freak rainstorm canceling the party? Don't worry. We've got you covered thanks to the Music Center and their latest "make Downtown a hip place to be" event. And hey, it's so hip, you can't even take photos of the skyscrapers (via LAO). The first of four NocTOURnals begins Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. But it's sort......

Another step has been taken in transforming downtown with the Grand Avenue project. Now we're not sure we're going to get the technicalities of municipal development right, but as we read in the Daily News, an agreement to begin design on the park (see illustration) that will stretch from the Music Center to City Hall has been approved. A gallery of park proposals from the people has been put together by good-intentioned rabble-rousers at......

MONDAY: Never The Girl Next Door Gretchen Mol plays Bettie Page in the upcoming movie, The Notorious Bettie Page that opens April 14. Join Mol and director Mary Harron at Reel Talk with Stephen Farber at the Wadsworth Theatre in Brentwood. Tuesday: Decruited “We [in show business] are experts in the field of rejection.” It began in L.A. when Annabelle Gurwitch collected stories from comedian friends to produce an event called Fired. Now, it’s......

Over the weekend fine diners were invited to a special downtown event: immune globulin shots. That's because at least one employee at Café Pinot, the fancy restaurant nestled in front of the central library downtown, has contracted Hepatitis A. The disease, whose symptoms include fever, nausea and dark urine (good morning!), has a weeks-long incubation period. So only those who dined at Café Pinot post-Thanksgiving, from Nov. 25-Dec. 4 should worry. Luckily for us,......

This Sunday, LA's theatre community--the companies, actors, supporters and fans--are hosting Applause for August Wilson, a tribute event for the playwright who passed away on October 2 at the age of 60. The brief, one hour long event will conclude with each of the titles of Wilson's "decade" plays (including Fences, The Piano Lesson, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) will be called-out, one at a time, followed by the audience giving Wilson and his......

As if there's no greater proof that there's a higher power at work in LA, may we draw your attention to the fact that Oliver Stone & David Corn will be conversing about politics tonight 7 PM at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Westwood, while across town four past governors of California will discuss whether California is governable at 7:00 p.m. in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center. Talk about a......

It's going to be super hot this weekend, so if you can swing it, hit the beach and catch some waves and breezes to keep cool. Not brave enough to tackle the daytime high-temps? There's plenty to do when the sun goes down, too! Here are some of the things going on this weekend for a hot child in the city to do. Friday --Summer Sweat 2 is on tonight at Amoeba Music in......

On Monday we plan on being in someone's backyard, beer in one hand, grilled meat product in another, head turned skyward to look at falling bits of colored light (or we could head out to some of these spots for more intense fireworks and Fourth-of-July action). So we've got the holiday covered. What about the rest of the weekend? Here are some quirky, cultural, and historical things going on around town--lots of them are......

On Thursday, we wrote:Our LA Flavorpill newsletter for May 31- June 6 landed in our mailbox on Tuesday. It's taken a while to digest their list of "hand picked" happenings, but we noticed that LA Flavorpill favors the Merce Cunningham Dance Company twice. First there's the wrap around ads for Dance at the Music Center's presentation of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Ahmanson Theatre June 2-6. While Flavorpill Productions states in its "About......

We have a bone to pick with Flavorpill Productions. Our LA Flavorpill newsletter for May 31- June 6 landed in our mailbox on Tuesday. It's taken a while to digest their list of "hand picked" happenings, but we noticed that LA Flavorpill favors the Merce Cunningham Dance Company twice. First there's the wrap around ads for Dance at the Music Center's presentation of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Ahmanson Theatre June 2-6.......

The funny thing about reading The “Grand Avenue Plan,” preliminarily approved last week, is pondering how often in the last century developers have felt the need to shift the functions of various districts, as though downtown LA were one of those party-favor puzzles in which you slide the little tiles around the board until a picture comes into focus. Certainly something needs to be done with the area — what ought to be a......

L.A. theater critic Rob Kendt's theater blog, the Wicked Stage, is back with fresh entries and, unfortunately, he's got a big story to parse this week as news filters out that the [Music] Center Theater Group (CTG) new artistic director, Michael Ritchie, has eliminated programs focused on the development of new plays and playrights, effective July 1, in order to spend more time and funding on staging new plays rather than work-shopping them in......

Egads, the weather has been lovely lately, hasn't it? Makes us almost ready to forgive Mother Nature for the torrential rains, winds, and mud. Last weekend was so nice that we thought we ought to get out of the house and into the heart of the city, so we did a little "resident tourist" number and plotted out a hearty walk and photo-taking tour of some spots in downtown LA. We started off the......